


Esau, Thy Brother

by Azar



Series: Birthright [2]
Category: Eureka (TV), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canonical Character Death, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 04:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11051658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azar/pseuds/Azar
Summary: Tony was the one who was supposed to go out in a blaze of glory doing something stupidly heroic. Not Nathan.





	Esau, Thy Brother

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Medie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/gifts).



> It's the long-awaited sequel to 'Thus Esau Despised His Birthright'! Or maybe not so long-awaited, I don't know.
> 
> I actually wrote this years ago, not long after "I Do Over" first aired, but I kept trying and failing to tie it in to Iron Man 2. That's something I'd still like to do eventually, but in another story. This part can stand on its own, and I think it's worth sharing even if the rest never materializes. *g* Hope you all agree.

It wasn't supposed to be like this, Tony thought bleakly as the limo pulled up to the side of the narrow road running through the cemetery. He was the one who was supposed to go out in a blaze of glory doing something stupidly heroic. They'd even made plans, of a sort, for such an eventuality. Plans for what would happen to the company, so Nathan wouldn't have to abandon his precious Eureka to look after it. No such plans had been made for looking after the things that Nathan cared about--Alli, Eureka, Global Dynamics--because Nathan was supposed to be the one with too much sense to need it.

Tony Stark could almost hear his brother's mocking voice: _I never knew you cared._

Yeah, well, he wasn't supposed to do that either. Nathan had been a thorn in his side almost from birth: too nearly Tony's equal in intellect and ingenuity to deny the blood tie, as much as he might have wanted to. That Howard Stark had the audacity to acknowledge the affair and claim the child of it had only twisted the knife in deeper. That Tony's mother had stood by him spoke volumes about her character. Howard hadn’t deserved her. 

(If he was being honest with himself, Tony knew he wasn’t much better. Which was one reason he’d never tried to really resolve things with Pepper.)

The fact that Nathan, of all people, had found and won a woman like Allison Blake--twice, no less--only rankled Tony further, giving him one more excuse to hate his bastard brother.

It was amazing how all those excuses melted away with one simple call.

Tony frowned and hit a button on the ceiling. "JARVIS? Network with the Global Dynamics mainframe and find out what Nathan was working on when he died. Then..." He stopped, unsure how to continue. The company behind the company town that was Eureka certainly wouldn't look kindly on him appropriating the research and finishing it under Stark Industries' auspices. But at the same time, he wanted to do something to ensure his brother's legacy. God knew he hadn't done enough while Nathan was alive.

"Then what, sir?" JARVIS' prim voice asked, in the vehicle's multiphasic surround sound. Which was a little on the creepy side, if he thought about it. He decided not to think about it. 

"Let me get back to you on that."

Happy circled around to open the door and Tony climbed out. He easily spotted Alli over the rows of tombstones where she stood quietly beside her ex-husband-slash-fiance's (empty) coffin. One hand rested on Kevin's shoulder.

Tony moved towards her and a murmur of surprise rippled through the crowd gathered around the grave. He felt vaguely insulted that no one seemed to have expected him to show up, even though half the town probably didn't know he and Nathan were related. Thankfully, there was no such shock in Alli's eyes, only gratitude. 

Reaching her side, Tony leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. "Alli, I know this may sound crazy coming from me, but I am genuinely sorry."

Alli smiled ruefully and squeezed his hand. "I know. Thank you for being here. Nathan would never have admitted it, but this would mean a lot to him."

Tony wondered idly if Allison hadn't sometimes had a clearer picture of the relationship between him and his brother than the two of them ever had. He then turned to Kevin. "Hey, kid."

"Hey, Uncle Tony," Kevin answered mechanically. 

"'Uncle Tony'?" echoed the blond-haired man on Allison's other side.

Alli made the introductions. "Carter, this is Nathan's brother. Tony, this is Jack Carter, Eureka's sheriff."

Tony offered Carter his hand. "Pleasure."

The sheriff was apparently a little slow on the uptake, because he pumped Tony's hand for a good two beats before his eyes widened. "Wait--Tony...Stark? You're...you're Iron Man!"

"Congratulations," Tony drawled. "You have a firm grasp of the obvious." He glanced at Alli. "I thought you had to be a genius to live in this town? Standards appear to be slipping."

Sheriff Carter glared at him. "Oh yeah. You're related to Stark, all right."

Alli looked pained. She pinched the bridge of her nose and asked in an irritated whisper, "Could we please save the sarcasm for later?"

Tony immediately felt contrite; not for the remark itself so much, but for how it must have reminded her of Nathan. Having a quip at the ready for any occasion, appropriate or not, was something the Stark brothers had in common and trading barbs had been one of the few things they'd ever done together that they both genuinely enjoyed. He knew he didn't look enough like Nathan to quite be a painful reminder to Alli of what they'd lost...until he opened his mouth.

"Right. Sorry."

Tony claimed the empty seat on the other side of Kevin and turned his attention to the man who had just gotten up to speak; Nathan's old mentor, Henry Deacon.

If he'd really wanted to, Tony could've probably found a way to blame Deacon for them all being here today. He was, after all, the one who'd first persuaded Nathan to dive into this small town science project. The problem was that Henry was the kind of man it was pretty much impossible not to like. The kind of mentor who was pretty much guaranteed _not_ to turn around and stick a knife in your back the minute you looked a little too closely at how he'd been running your company for you all these years.

...and now was not the time or the place for his lingering Obie issues. Jesus. Maybe he really was as selfish as the rest of the world thought.

It was a good speech, even though Tony realized only as Henry was stepping down from the podium that he'd been wrapped up in his own thoughts through most of it. He'd caught enough to recognize that though the words might've been pretty standard for a eulogy, bordering on platitudes, Henry more than made up for it in sincerity. When he talked about the important contributions Nathan had made to Eureka, both as a scientist and as a person, it was genuinely heartfelt. 

It might have even brought something resembling a tear to Tony's eye if he'd been paying better attention.

But now it was his turn, so Tony rose and stepped up to the podium. He'd asked Alli for this when she'd called to give him the news, and she'd granted it with more grace than he probably deserved. And because of that, he'd put more thought into this one speech than he had into a lifetime of flippant one-liners.

"Hey. Ah, most of you are probably wondering what I'm doing here. Half of you because you didn't know Nathan had a brother, let alone that it was yours truly, and those of you that did, because you know we didn't exactly get along." Tony paused. Jesus, all those wasted opportunities. What would it have been like to have a brother instead of a rival? "I regret that now, and I regret even more that it took getting to this point to realize it. But enough about me."

The wording of this next part probably wasn't going to go over well with everyone, but it was honest and Nathan would've expected nothing less. "Nathan was a pain in the ass." As expected, a murmur of shock and horror rippled through the audience at this, but to Tony's amusement, Sheriff Carter nodded--probably without even realizing it. Maybe he could get to like the guy after all. "He was as smart as me, as good looking, and a hell of a lot taller. And he got all the good women." This with a rueful glance at Alli, who favored him with a small smile. There was a ripple of surprised laughter through the audience before Tony turned serious. "But what I failed to notice until it was too late was that he was also one of the only people in my life who never let me down. Who never wanted anything from me, except maybe the one thing I was too proud to give him. He deserved much better than he got, from me and from our father. And he should be here right now to hear at least one of us admit it."

It took several seconds for Tony to realize he'd lapsed into what was quite possibly the longest pregnant pause of his adult life. So much so that he immediately felt the need to lighten it up a little. "Sorry, it's just...if there was a moment for Nathan to come back from the dead to make me eat my words, that would've been it." 

There were a few rueful smiles, a half-hearted chuckle here and there. Only then did it hit Tony that a part of him had still very much been expecting that. This was Eureka. They pulled off the closest thing science could come to miracles--well, aside from his own work--every day. 

Looking out across the people that Nathan had given his life for, Tony wondered if that realization was written as suddenly and as blatantly on his face as it was on his heart. He wasn't joking when he murmured, "Jesus...he's really gone."


End file.
